Twitter to make job cuts after Elon Musk takeover

In an internal email, the social media company said the cuts are "an effort to place Twitter on a healthy path", BBC reported.

The firm added that its offices would be temporarily closed and badge access would be suspended.

The multi-billionaire will be Twitter's chief executive after buying the firm last week in a $44bn deal.

"We will go through the difficult process of reducing our global workforce on Friday," Twitter said in the email.

"We recognise this will impact a number of individuals who have made valuable contributions to Twitter, but this action is unfortunately necessary to ensure the company's success moving forward."

The company said office access would be immediately limited "to help ensure the safety of each employee as well as Twitter systems and customer data".

Workers who are not affected will be notified through their company email, according to Twitter.

Meanwhile, those who are affected will be told of the "next steps" through their personal accounts.

"Given the nature of our distributed workforce and our desire to inform impacted individuals as quickly as possible, communications for this process will take place via email," Twitter said.

There is speculation that as many as half of Twitter's 8,000 jobs are on the chopping block.

The platform struggles to make a profit. One way to fix the problem is by making a dent in the wage bill.

Bloomberg, citing unnamed sources, suggested some senior staff were asked to make lists of employees to be cut on their teams.

The cost-cutting follows criticism of Twitter's efforts to raise money by proposing to charge $8 a month for a "verified" blue check-mark.

In addition to the verification badge, those who pay could have their tweets promoted more widely and see fewer adverts.

Twitter has not made a profit in several years and its number of users has remained fairly static at about 300 million a month.